Using data from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey orbiter, a team of planetary researchers have crated a map of the water ice depth on the Red Planet. Published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the new map shows that water ice is present sometimes just a few inches below the surface, at locations where future landing is realistic; this ice could be exploited on-site for drinking water, breathable oxygen, etc., at a much lower cost than if brought from Earth.
This map shows near-surface water ice on Mars; cool colors represent less than one foot (30 cm) below the surface; warm colors are over two feet (60 cm) deep; sprawling brown zones on the map represent areas where a landing spacecraft would sink into fine dust; the outlined box represents the ideal region to send astronauts for them to be able to dig up water ice. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU.
Liquid water can’t last in the thin air of Mars. With so little air pressure, it evaporates from a solid to a gas when exposed to the atmosphere.
Martian water ice is locked away underground throughout the planet’s mid-latitudes.
“You wouldn’t need a backhoe to dig up this ice. You could use a shovel,” said Dr. Sylvain Piqueux, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“We’re continuing to collect data on buried ice on Mars, zeroing in on the best places for astronauts to land.”
To find this ice, Dr. Piqueux and colleagues relied on two heat-sensitive instruments: the Mars Climate Sounder onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the Thermal Emission Imaging System camera on Mars Odyssey.
“We cross-referenced temperatures suggestive of ice with other data, such as reservoirs of ice detected by radar or seen after meteor impacts,” the scientists explained.
“The data from Odyssey’s Gamma Ray Spectrometer, which is tailor-made for mapping water ice deposits, were also useful.”
“As expected, all these data suggest a trove of water ice throughout the Martian poles and mid-latitudes. But the map reveals particularly shallow deposits that future mission planners may want to study further.”
The team is planning a comprehensive campaign to continue studying the Martian ice across different seasons, watching how the abundance of this resource changes over time.
“The more we look for near-surface ice, the more we find,” said MRO deputy project scientist Dr. Leslie Tamppari, also from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“Observing Mars with multiple spacecraft over the course of years continues to provide us with new ways of discovering this ice.”
_____
Sylvain Piqueux et al. Widespread Shallow Water Ice on Mars at High and Mid Latitudes. Geophysical Research Letters, published online December 10, 2019; doi: 10.1029/2019GL083947
